A bit of rain shows up Goff’s house of cards

Phil Goff can demand all he likes, but the city’s basic infrastructure is falling to bits. Out West successive left-wing councils have neglected infrastructure.

His predecessor’s insistence on cramming more and more people into the isthmus with intensification to make his train set numbers work has also placed undue pressure on stormwater infrastructure.

A little bit of rain and now Phil Goff is going all vein-popping mad about it all.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is inspecting the flooding aftermath in New Lynn this afternoon after calling for more safeguards to the city’s water supply.

Goff will visit the West Auckland suburb, held up as a poster child for housing intensification, where the stormwater infrastructure failed to cope with yesterday’s rain bomb, flooding flats, shops and opening up a huge sinkhole.

Speaking on Radio NZ’s Morning Report, Goff said the city had to build more resilience into the water system.

Despite the rains being an extraordinary event, a world-class city such as Auckland should have high-quality, safe drinking water at all times, Goff said.

Rain in Auckland is an extraordinary event? Really?

Goff said the city had to look at stopping silt getting into the dams in the Hunua Ranges, which supply water to the Ardmore water treatment plant.

What a clown. How is he going to stop silt getting into dams when the catchment area is a fricken forest?

How the hell did such a stupid man get elected in the first place?

“We have got a concern that two-thirds of the water treated comes through the Ardmore water treatment station. That’s a lot of eggs in one basket,” Goff said.

He said Watercare was renewing the Huia water treatment plant and seeking extra capacity from the Waikato River and other engineering options were needed for treating water.

Goff said with Auckland growing at 45,000 people a year, it reduced the headroom when an emergency occurs.

“I know they say it is a one in a 100-year event, but there is no guarantee with global warming that we are not going to a have a whole lot of these events,” he said.

There is the blame on global warming again…when it is as clear as the moles on his face that intensification is the real problem.

Phil Goff should stop talking about trains, tunnels and stadiums and put money into infrastructure instead.

– NZ Herald

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